VietnamStudy finds bacteria in Vietnamese pork

fleischwirtschaft.com — VIETNAM, Hà Nội. Forty eight out of 108 (44%) cut pork meat samples collected at wet markets in Hưng Yên Province were found to contain the disease-causing bacteria Salmonella. The finding, based on research conducted from 2014 to 2015, was published recently in a research paper. This was reported by Việt Nam News.

The analysis used a quantitative microbial risk assessment, the first of its kind in Việt Nam. The researchers determined that the probability of pork eaters in northern Hưng Yên Province becoming ill with salmonellosis from consuming infected pork in a given year is 18%. This figure contrasts with a 2015 report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimating just one per cent prevalence of salmonellosis consumption in Asian countries, including Việt Nam, but with the WHO acknowledging that its figure was likely greatly underestimated.

Salmonella is a common pathogen causing diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever and septicaemia in humans. Another article published by the same research team found the human antibiotic drug chloramphenicol was found in 11% of the packaged feed samples tested and 4% of the pork in Hưng Yên and Nghệ An provinces, despite being banned in livestock production.

These findings resulted from analysing 514 samples of pig feed, meat, liver and kidney for antibiotics and heavy metals. Using chloramphenicol in livestock production can hasten the development of drug resistance in bacteria, making treating bacterial infections in people more difficult and expensive.

The researchers also found lead in 28% of the samples but at levels below maximum residue limits and so not dangerous when consumed. Hùng and his co-authors applied risk-based approaches promoted by the Vietnamese Food Safety Law but not yet widely applied. These approaches, Hung said, should be expanded to determine human health risks of other food commodities.